Team Rainbow Rocket is made up of the main villains of from all the previous Pokemon games: Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, Lysandre, all led by Giovanni. However, each comes from a different dimension, where they managed to beat the heroes.

Just before you reach the Battle Tree, you'll encounter older versions of Red and Blue (AKA Ash and Gary) from original Pokemon Red/Blue games. As usual, Blue does all the talking, while Red speaks only in ellipses. In the Battle Tree challenge itself, they'll appear as Battle Legends. There are also Special Trainers, such as Anabel, Colress, Cynthia, who all come from previous Pokemon games.